About

Daniela Nyberg holds a Ph.D. degree in Ethnochoreology granted by the Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her Alma Mater is Sofia University, St. Kliment Ohridski, where she obtained an MA in Bulgarian Philology and an MA in Philosophy with Kulturology (Studies of Culture) Minor (1996). As a philology student, she specialized in Folkloristics (1993). Before studying at Sofia University, she obtained her BA in Bulgarian folk choreography from the Institute for Music and Choreography, Sofia (1983).

From 1994 to 1996, Daniela was a teaching assistant in sociocultural anthropology (Bulgaria and Bulgarians) at Sofia University Slavic Philology Department. Since she graduated from Sofia University, she has taught at several educational institutions: New Bulgarian University (Bulgarian dance folklore and dance anthropology), National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov” (Ethnography), Lyuben Groys Drama College (verbal, musical and dance folklore), and more. For several years she was a lecturer at the Summer Seminar of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” for Foreign Bulgarian and Slavic Scholars and seminars organized by Fulbright Committee Educational exchange, while teaching full time choreography, literature, philosophy, and ethnography at Sofia’s 144 High school.

From 2000 to 2002, she was a grant holder of Research Support Scheme, Open Society Institute, Prague, for her research “The Folk Dance Today: Field Studies in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia”.

Since Daniela was 19, she has been busy teaching dance and choreographing – working with children, students, and adults in Sofia and other places. She enjoys doing this also today while living in the United States.

Artistic Work Abroad

Daniela first visited the United States in 2003. This happened because of the Down Jersey Folklife Center’s invitation to deliver a lecture and workshop on Bulgarian folklore. Since then, she has conducted more than 350 dance workshops in nearly 40 states, most of which with the accordion player Angel Nazlamov.

In 2008 she married Dr. Gary Nyberg, a music professor, and settled in a beautiful place between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. Soon after that, she began supporting the cultural activities of the Podkrepa Bulgarian-Macedonian Association in Portland and the Bulgarian Cultural and Heritage Center of Seattle – leading several programs and teaching various disciplines.

Daniela had the honor and privilege to appear as a guest lecturer at several American universities: New York University, The Gallatin School; Duke University; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Brigham Young University (BYU); University of Washington (UW); Western Washington University (WWU), and other.

She is part of the committee behind the “Readings from the Heart of Europe” – a book club at the University of Washington.

She writes articles, poems, and essays, which have been published in proceedings, journals, and newspapers. Among the literature ones are Literaturen vestnik, Literaturen forum, Lyuboslov, Otvud koritsite, and other.

Daniela authors the poetry books, Miris na voda [Sent of Water] (2004, bilingual); Poslednata nedelya na septemvri [The Last Week of September] (2011); V uhoto na rakovinata [Echoes from the Conch], and Izbrah da zapisha [I chose to write it down] (2018) – Ab Publishing House.

Her monographic study, The Folk Dance Ensemble as a Cultural Phenomenon in Bulgaria, was published with a grant by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and the additional support of Americans and Bulgarians – Bulgaria music and dance lovers in the US. Her academic publications are available here.

In 2020, in partnership with Ludmil Krumov (jazz guitarist), Maria Apostolova (artist), and Iren Petrova (editor), she presented the music and poetry album “V grada na spasenieto” [In the city of salvation] – online, Filmabee.

In 2022, Lexicon will publish her new poetry book, Ako e stih [If it is a poem].

Daniela serves as artistic director at the Bulgarian Cultural and Heritage Center of Seattle and the moderator of the Glagolnitsata Society for Poetry and Literature.